Betting tips: Why Arsenal’s Santi Cazorla will score against Ireland

Betting tips: The Tipster is backing Arsenal's Santi Cazorla to score for Spain against the Republic of Ireland on Wednesday

Robbie Keane has 126 caps for the Republic of Ireland Photo: Kelvin Gillmor

Spain face the Republic of Ireland in their final warm-up game before the Confederations Cup, and the Tipster is backing Arsenal’s Santi Cazorla to score on Wednesday morning.

Our resident betting expert is backing both Ireland and Spain to net, with his long shot Ireland’s most-capped player Robbie Keane to make it 60 goals for his country.

But ultimately, the Tipster expects Spain to be winning at half-time and full-time, and to secure victory by a comfortable margin in the friendly at Yankee Stadium, which kicks off at 01:00 on Wednesday UK time.

Spain struggled to overcome fellow Confederations Cup competitors Haiti last Thursday. Arsenal midfielder Cazorla scored the opener in a 2-1 victory over the minnows. The former Malaga star had a great debut season at the Gunners, scoring 12 goals. And so the Tipster’s opening bet is Cazorla to score any time against Ireland at 13/8.

For Giovanni Trapattoni’s men, it will be a chance to make amends for their humiliation at the hands of the Spanish at last year’s European championship. Ireland suffered a 4-0 loss and never looked like causing their opponents any problems. Fernando Torres scored in the fourth minute at Euro 2012 before three goals after half-time. The Tipster expects Spain to be winning at half-time and full-time, which is priced at 8/13.

Ireland only managed to score one goal in three attempts at Euro 2012. But Trapattoni’s men have scored in five of their last six outings, including sevens strikes in total against Georgia and the Faroe Islands. Spain also conceded to Haiti in their most-recent friendly. So the Tipster reckons both teams to score is worth a punt at 5/4.

Spain, who are top of the Fifa rankings, were 4-0 winners against Trapattoni’s side at the European championship last summer. Ireland faced the second-best side in international football, Germany, in World Cup qualifying last autumn and were on the wrong end of a 6-1 loss. So the Tipster reckons if Spain can score early, Vicente del Bosque’s men could rack up a comfortable win. Over 2.5 goals and Spain to beat Ireland is 8/11.

Keane became Ireland’s most-capped player on Friday night as he scored a hat-trick against the Faroe Islands in a must-win World Cup qualifier. The 32-year-old will captain Ireland against the world champions and will be on penalty duty, too. The Tipster reckons Keane to score any time at 4/1 is really too good to be missed.